Auto-generated kinematically equivalent ray-traceable models for seismic modeling

A system, comprising:

• at least one computer processor;
• and
• a kinematic model engine, executing on the at least one computer processor and configured to:
• receive a first velocity model of a subsurface region, comprising a three-dimensional (3D) grid of voxels, comprising respective velocity values,
• process, by an eikonal solver, the first velocity model to generate a reference travel-time model comprising a second 3D grid of voxels comprising respective reference travel-time values,
• initialize a candidate background model based on the first velocity model,
• process the candidate background model by the eikonal solver to generate a candidate travel-time model comprising a third 3D grid of voxels comprising respective candidate travel-time values, and
• update the candidate background model to minimize a measure of difference between respective candidate travel-time values of the candidate travel-time model and respective reference travel-time values of the reference travel-time model, to obtain a second velocity model of the subsurface region.

A non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising computer readable program code, for causing a computer system to perform operations comprising:

• receiving a first velocity model of a subsurface region, the first velocity model comprising a three-dimensional (3D) grid of voxels comprising respective velocity values,
• processing the first velocity model with an eikonal solver to generate a reference travel-time model comprising a second 3D grid of voxels comprising respective reference travel-time values,
• initializing a candidate background model based on the first velocity model,
• processing the candidate background model to generate a candidate travel-time model comprising a third 3D grid of voxels comprising respective candidate travel-time values, and
• updating the candidate background model to reduce a measure of difference between respective candidate travel-time values of the candidate travel-time model and respective reference travel-time values of the reference travel-time model, to obtain a second velocity model of the subsurface region.